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The moon settled on the Sijiwang banner in the country’s northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region early Thursday morning local time, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency, citing the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
This is the first time that a lunar spacecraft has returned to Earth with a sample of the moon since the 1980s, according to Reuters.
China launched the Chang’e spacecraft on November 24. The spacecraft had an orbiter designed to enter lunar orbit, a lunar spacecraft, and two other spacecraft capable of landing and bringing the lunar spacecraft back to the moon.
At 11:11 pm local time on December 1, the lunar spacecraft landed north of the area known as the ‘Storm Ocean’ near the moon.
Pang Jing, deputy chief designer of the China Academy of Space Technology Chang’e Mission under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, said Chang’e was the first mission to collect lunar samples from Earth in 44 years.
He said his spacecraft would collect samples from the moon’s surface, as well as from within, by excavating the surface.
The mission was to collect two kilograms of samples from the moon. How much was eventually brought in will be known later.
If the mission is fully successful, China will be the third country to collect lunar samples after the United States and the former Soviet Union.
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